Video Volunteers (VV) is working to create an alternative media landscape in which thousands of rural and poor people around the world can produce high quality video content that brings awareness to communities and empowers them to take action.

Started in 2003, Video Volunteers, a registered 501c3 non profit organisation, is led jointly by Jessica Mayberry and Stalin K.

Our main programs include Community Video Units, IndiaUnheard – Community News Service, Community Radio Forum, Girl Powered Videos, Videoshala E-CVUs and Videos for Livelihood.

All of these programs are providing disadvantaged communities with the journalistic, critical thinking and creative skill that will all them to articulate and share their perspectives on a local and a global level.

Our work has earned us several awards including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia ‘09 and grants from the Knight News Challenge and the Echoing Green Foundation. Video Volunteers has also won a 2006 Tech Museum Award and the NYU Stern Business School Social Business Plan Competition in 2008.

Video Volunteers is active in the US, India, and Brazil and has done projects in other places such as Africa.

Eel fishing provides an alternative livelihood to the Rongmei Naga community of India’s Manipur.
Nearly a hundred thousand people of the Rongmei Naga community live in Manipur. Achungmei – the correspondent of this video is one of them. Most of these community members live bellow the poverty line. They practice slash and burn cultivation method, growing vegetables and fruits on the slopes of the hills. However, this is not enough to support an entire family. So for their survival, the tribals need an alternative means of earning. Eel fishing in the Logtak lake is currently that other source of income for the Rongmeis.
Spread over 40 square km, Logtak is the largest freshwater lake in the north east region. The water of the lake is mostly covered with water weeds, making it a perfect breeding ground for eels. For people of Manipur, the staple diet is rice and fish. So there is a huge demand for fish, especially eel in the local market.
Interestingly, before Manipur became a part of the Indian republic, the rights of fishing in Logtak used to be given by the king to his cavalry soldiers as remuneration for their services.
Luckilly for the local tribal community, such exclusive fishing rights are no longer given to anyone. So the poor tribals are now free to fish and earn their livelihood through selling their catch to local customers.
Some of the community members, such as Achungmei’s family members do not fish themselves, but are regular consumers. So, by buy...